F-16 Fighting Falcon
The F-16 Fighting Falcon is a 2nd generation development spurred on by a requirement for a lightweight Tactical Surface Fighter with superior mobility, envisioned to operate alongside "heavier" TSFs like the F-14 Tomcat and F-15 Eagle. History The F-16 was part of a requirement by the United States' Department of Defence for a "High-Low" mixture of both lightweight and long-operation TSFs in the war against the BETA. Having grown impatient of the need to constantly change tactics to deal with sudden BETA attacks, the Department of Defence formulated the High-Low TSF force mixture to experiment with that aspect of tactical deployment. To that end, the F-16, developed for the Lightweight Tactical Surface Fighter competition (LWTSF), was designed with mobility and cost in mind. As a lighter TSF than other units like the F-15, the F-16 is cheaper and easier to maintain than other TSFs produced by the USA at the time, and more capable in close-quarters combat. In an attempt to fill the gap of not having enough funds to completely replace all TSFs in the military with F-14/F-15 models, the US military opted to fill the space with F-16s, allowing their fighting force to remain flexible in tactics and deployment. Deployment The F-16A is the first production variant of the F-16 line, and is exported to a great many countries around the world as a replacement for older TSFs. Other than weight, the F-16 is almost identical in performance to the F-15, and it is fairly popular amongst other nations as a next-generation replacement for older units like exported F-4Es and F-5s. Both the Israeli Lavi and the UFC J-10 were also eventually developed by using the basic frame design of the F-16. Several F-16As were used by the Turkish Army's 94th Tactical Armor Battalion Cobra during the Battle of Rhodes in 1993, and once again in 2001 during Operation Ouka. F-16AM A variant in use by the Benelux Union Armed Forces, with improvements in fire control, data processing, and electronic warfare equipment applied as part of a mid-life upgrade. While visually similar to the F-16A, the F-16AM is capable of AMWS-21 usage, as seen during Blue Flag. Four of them were in use by the European Union's Slechtvalk Flight, and were involved in a battle with ''Idol'' Test Flight that left Slechtvalk completely overwhelmed.ベネルクス軍 F-16 ファイティング・ファルコン. F-16C Upgraded F-16A Fighting Falcon, equipped with the F110-GE-100 engine in its Jump Units. The F-16Cs in Yukon Base, numbering 72 machines in total,MLA TSF Cross Operation Vol. 4, pg. 25, F-16 ファイティング・ファルコン. were units with significant flight time that had been given to the UN along with the base. Some of them were later repainted in UN livery,国連軍 F-16 ファイティング・ファルコン. and were split equally into a US Army security unit and the United Nations' 37th Security Force Unit Astraea; the Refugee Liberation Front later took control of the base, along with the F-16Cs of both sides, and used them for their own purposes. F-16D Also known as the Block 52 upgrade, several improvements to the TSF have been made, the least of which are an enlargement of its frame in the shoulder blocks and lower leg sections, improving its operational time. F-16XL In 1991, with F-22A procurement running into difficulties, the United States began the DRTSF (Dual-Role Tactical Surface Fighter) Program to modernize and improve existing TSFs to make up for gaps and shortages, until the next mainline unit could be deployed in sufficient numbers. The McDaell Doglam-proposed F-15E and the General Dynomics-proposed F-16XL were both submitted for the plan. Due to the F-15E's superior payload, capability for further upgrade, and procurement cost, the F-16XL lost the selection. A fairly extensive redesign of the F-16, with enlarged Jump Units being one of those changes, the F-16XL was envisioned as a support replacement for the lack of US capability to deploy stealthy strike units. While it did not enter production, the data gathered from it would later be used to develop the F-22A Raptor and F-35 Lightning II. YF-16 Viper The prototype used in the LWTSF competition against the YF-17 Cobra. Trivia *Unlike its Muv-Luv counterpart, the YF-16 was not officially named "Viper"; the name was used as an informal nickname for the F-16 family of aircraft due to their resemblance to the Colonial Viper starfighter from the Battlestar Galactica sci-fi series. *In the Total Eclipse anime, the F-16s used by Slechtvalk Flight are identified as F-16Fs, but Total Eclipse World Guidance refers to them as the F-16AM, tying the F-16 variant in with their real-world counterparts'. Image Gallery |-|Appearances= mecha_1_f16_us.png|US Army F-16C as it appears in the Total Eclipse anime. mecha_2_f16_un.png|UN Army F-16C as it appears in the Total Eclipse anime. mecha_3_f16_euro.png|Benelux F-16AM as it appears in the Total Eclipse anime. |-|Lineart= F-16.png|F-16 Fighting Falcon lineart, from Integral Works. |-|Gallery= VLCpic-Noob Barrage.jpg|US Army F-16Cs opening fire. VLCpic-Flying for a Beatdown.jpg|F-16C in flight. VLCpic-The Valient Noobs.jpg|UN F-16Cs in formation. VLCpic-Stolen TSF will murder.png|UN F-16C alongside a Soviet MiG-29OVT. fightan farukon.png|F-16s of the Turkish Army during Operation Ouka. References Category:TSF Category:Total Eclipse Category:TSFIA